24-Hour Party People: Inside Rave’s 21st-Century Redux

1989’s “Second Summer of Love'' arrived with the explosion of UK acid house, an electronic music scene marked by psychedelic graphics, frenetic basslines and brazen hedonism. A direct response to the conservative Thatcher years, youth unemployment and heightened government distrust, rave, and its colorful, anything-goes style, defined one of Europe’s largest youth subcultures. As the weekend hit, young people from all walks of life grabbed their bucket hats, whistles and pacifiers, and descended on abandoned warehouses and open fields in rural towns—often to the alarm of countryside residents and local police forces alike. This was the UK’s answer to Chicago’s acid house rave culture and it defined an era.